1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of networking and semaphores, and more particularly to the use of a data socket component to maintain and/or access a semaphore, wherein various devices may use the semaphore for synchronization or control for various purposes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In modern networked computer systems, the computer system may be required to obtain data from various sources, including a semaphore. The semaphore may be comprised in local memory on the computer system, a memory of a second computer system, external data sources connected to the computer system, such as I/O devices connected to computer system ports, and/or other networked computer systems, such as computer systems connected to a LAN, WAN or to the Internet. When a program executing on a computer system is required to access data, such as from a semaphore, the program is often required to account for the source or location of the data, opening and closing of files, the format of the data, and conversion of the data to readable formats, among others.
One of the biggest challenges in developing complex applications that are comprised of different components is sharing and exchanging information and data between the different components. One method for sharing or exchanging information between different components is by using a semaphore. As defined herein, the term “semaphore” is intended to include a memory location containing data that is used to enable two or more programs to share information and/or synchronize operations. A semaphore may be used for various purposes, such as management of a shared resource, such that the different components are aware of the level of the shared resource that is available to the different components, over time. For example, a user may use a semaphore to restrict access to a communications channel to a limited number of threads so that each thread has sufficient bandwidth. As another example, two or more programs may use a semaphore to increment or decrement the count of the use of a certain resource. A semaphore may also include or store other types of “synchronization objects”, such as a mutex or a queue.
Today, the task of exchanging data between different applications or components is solved using a number of different existing tools, including writing and reading files, DDE, ActiveX automation, http server and client tools, and more. In addition, measurement applications, as well as other engineering applications, often place some special requirements on sharing data, such as providing additional information qualifying the data.
Hence, an improved system and method is desired for providing programs with access to data from semaphores, wherein the data may have various types or formats, wherein the access is provided invisibly to the user or programmer, and wherein the data is returned in a format useable by the application accessing the semaphore.